time of late october, can't this time of late october, can't remember saying that often this year so remember saying that often this year so it will feel much colder. remember the clocks go back tonight, one extra hour in bed. this is bbc news. the headlines at 3pm. catalonia's dismissed leader urges peaceful opposition to madrid's direct rule. thousands take part in rallies in madrid in favour of unity with catalonia. the environment secretary michael gove apologises unreservedly for an on—airjoke about disgraced movie mogul harvey weinstein. warped and degrading — jeremy corbyn says a culture which tolerates the abuse of women is thriving in westminster. the humanitarian crisis affecting almost 400,000 syrians in an eastern suburb of damascus is described as an outrage by the united nations. also in the next hour, the zip—wiring and clubbing glasgow pensioners. the new scheme aiming to tackle loneliness and improve health among older people. and the biggest match

of their lives, england's teenagers prepare to face spain in the under—17 world cup final. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the spanish government has begun implementing direct rule over catalonia, a day after its parliament declared independence. madrid has stripped the region of its autonomy and the interior ministry of the national government has taken control of the regional police force. in the last hour, catalonia's regional president, carlos puigdemont, has called for "democratic opposition" to madrid's move. our correspondent gavin lee reports from barcelona in catalonia. squashing the insurrection,

the spread of headlines across spanish newspapers this morning read the same. the spanish government has opted for the so—called nuclear option to deal with catalan separatists after their proclamation of independence yesterday. the reasons parliament has been dissolved, separatist leaders will be removed from office and elections have been called just before christmas. in barcelona, the clampdown didn't stop thousands of catalan independent seekers claiming victory, partying into the night singing songs of liberation. tense moments too with confrontations between those on both sides. it's calm here now in plaza de saint jaume after last night's celebrations, but many on both sides are now asking exactly the same question, how does the government in madrid assert its authority here and separatists talk about protecting and defending the institutions if the spanish government tries to forcibly remove carles puigdemont and his separatist

cabinet. i think that there are a lot of things that we haven't resolved yet from the past and today and yesterday was a very important day, yes. translation: to throw out the government that the people elected and install themselves, this is an attack. they want war. translation: i've lived in catalonia for 11 years, but i'm from madrid. for me, i am spanish. i'm not going to stop being spanish and i have a child who was born in catalonia, but i don't want to stop him being spanish. but i also believe you can't silence so many people. we are supposed to be living in a democracy and you have to listen to the people. it's now emerged that spain's deputy prime minister, soraya saenz de santamaria, has been placed in de facto charge of catalonia and the fate of carles puigdemont, the man who still regards himself as leader, is unclear. it's understood he and his cabinet may be facing charges of rebellion which carries a 30—year sentence for acting against the state. gavin lee reporting there.

my colleague tim willcox is in the catalan capital, barcelona. he spoke to me a little earlier. he said that more catalan politicians could be arrested over the next few days. mr puidgemont gave a prerecorded address, we think from a town where he was mayor from the local mayor's office there. in it really we are in a parallel universe, because he doesn't consider himself sacked from the position as catalan president because he says the referendum on october ist was legal, 90% of people voted for him on a turnout of 43% so he carries on as normal. but the key thing he was saying to the catalan people, of course many millions of whom don't support him, they want to stay with madrid, but his message was one of a pacifist response to anything happening now. he said we have our own laws, our system, basically i am still in charge, but when madrid takes over, he's

calling for peaceful resistance, so no mass demonstrations called at the moment. i think what will be interesting to see what happens on monday morning when civil servants begin their working week at the local police offices here, because they've been taken over by madrid, the information or advice they've been given is to stay neutral in this crisis. but it will be interesting to see whether they follow the orders of the people put in place by madrid, or whether some of them will carry on listening to mr puigdemont himself. he seems very relaxed, at the time that statement was going out he was spotted having lunch in a restaurant with, we understand, his wife and family and friends. so he seems very calm about the situation. i think there's relief after last night, because i was speaking to some people close to him, there is relief that madrid

didn't come in hard, immediately, and try to arrest them. but that could still happen over the next few days. in madrid, thousands of people have gathered in the centre of the city for a demonstration in support of a unified spain. our correspondent is there. in central madrid the mood moves from party to anger. people on the streets here are calling for a united spain. they're supporting those in catalonia who don't want independence and they themselves say they don't want their country to be divided. there have been passionate speeches from the stage. people say the government is not doing enough to return catalonia to legality as madrid puts it. some passionate

people here as well say they want the leader of catalonia to be put in prison. the government of course has made key moves already in order to impose direct rule in catalonia, it's dismissed the parliament and key ministers there and madrid is now running things in the region. as far as this crowd's concerned that's precisely what they should be doing. if the crowd here, which say they're here for their country, for democracy, and for the future of spain. here to support my country, support the constitution so they have power. why they want to break spain? there is no sense. it is a problem that is not only affecting catalonia, it's affecting whole of spain, europe and we can not just affecting whole of spain, europe and we can notjust stay and see affecting whole of spain, europe and we can not just stay and see what happens. we have to act. all sides

involved in this crisis have called for calm. they want this process to ta ke for calm. they want this process to take place peacefully but of course the risk is that passions on both sides are now running extremely high and nobody quite knows how things could develop. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn will use a speech today to warn that what he calls a warped and degrading culture, which tolerates abuse of women is thriving at westminster. downing street has described the allegations of sexual harassment in politics as deeply concerning. this morning the environment secretary, michael gove, apologised for making what he said was a clumsyjoke about the disgraced hollywood producer, harvey weinstein while being interviewed on radio 4's today programme. let's have a listen to what was said. sometimes i think that coming into this studio with you, john, is a bit like going into harvey weinstein‘s bedroom. laughter. applause.

i tell you what... may have got something else to say there, michael. john goes way past groping! you pray that you emerge with your dignity in tact. the green party peer baroness jennyjones has told the bbc mr gove's comments were unacceptable. she's been speaking to my colleague shaun ley. it's obviously completely unacceptable. to be fair to michael gove, he did apologise immediately, i think he understood that it was a ridiculous thing to say. but at the same time, listening to the clip was illuminating, because a lot of people joined in on it. nick robinson retweeted it, neil kinnock extended the joke and a lot of people were laughing, some of that might have been shocked laughter. at the same time it does demonstrate that people stilljoke about sexual assault and rape

and there is absolutely nothing funny about it. one of the things that struck me, we seem to be in a situation when talking about harassment, on the one hand we will use the strongest possible language about it and yet on the other hand we will make light of it and almost in the same, not quite the same breath, but in a short space of time. why do we struggle, do you think, to talk about these things in a rationale way? i think it's embedded deep in our culture that men get away with an awful lot of things, just because oh, you know, they didn't mean any harm, and it was just a joke. i think we have gone past that now intellectually, but unfortunately, we still get stuck in a groove laughing about these things. rape, it happens to women, it happens to men as well, it is a scarring horrible experience that many people never get over. the sooner that we understand that, the sooner our culture will catch up. jeremy corbyn today saying a warped

and degrading culture, absolutely. and time we learned better. perhaps this incident will send out some very strong signals to all the people who do make these jokes so that we can perhaps have a better culture generally. women experience harassment and mild sexual assault quite often on a daily basis, whether it's on the tube or in the office and it really is time that everybodyjust realised it can't go on. that was the green party peer baroness jennyjones speaking. our political correspondent ellie price is in westminster. not the best of timing there for mr gove, because we will be hearing from mr corbyn, he is speaking on this subject later today. yeah, he will be. he will be using some strong words as well, we understand. he will talk about a warped and

degrading culture that's led to sexism effectively existing across society. what's most interesting is that he said it's been allowed to thrive here in westminster. he will say that there needs to be a turning point now and any mps who have been engaged in such inappropriate behaviour need to be called out, need to be held to account. in general, women he says need to feel better about coming forward if they've been victims of any harassment or indeed any sexual assault. of course the timing is particularly interesting because all of this comes up just a day after those reports in the sun newspaper yesterday which said that a number of female parliamentary researchers and aides here in westminster had been using a messaging service to talk about inappropriate behaviour, some of the stories of mps they may have had over the last few years. so, it feels very sort of press yent at the moment, if you like, that's what everyone is talking about ——

precient. it seems as if he knows this has been taking place, it's been allowed to thrive at westminster, many will say why is he only speaking about it now, what's caused him to speak up? would this have anything to do with jared o'mara and he has to show direction? of course there were criticism ofs of the labour party during the week when one of its labour mps was suspended from the party for comments he made online a few years ago before he was nominated as a candidate in the last general election. jared o'mara was elected in the last general election unexpectedly, so there was criticism that he was chosen as a candidate, he perhaps wasn't vetted properly. of course the labour party stren outsidely deny all of that. they say —— strenously deny all of that. they say they have robust systems for choosing candidates and he has been

suspended pending an investigation and that investigation will go forward and consider everything and comments that he made. of course, this is unpleasa ntry comments that he made. of course, this is unpleasantry across the political spectrum, those comments from michael gove, which he apologised for straightaway, clearly this is a difficult issue across the divide and all parties here in westminster are keen to show they have a handle on it. thank you. the first charges have been filed in the investigation into alleged meddling by russia in last year's american presidential election. a former head of the fbi, robert mueller, is leading the inquiry. it hasn't been revealed who has been charged, but us media claim at least one person will be taken into custody on monday. our washington correspondent laura bicker is following the story. just give us the background to this story, please. well, first of all, a note of caution, these reports have

come from us media. we have had nothing confirmed from the investigation and when it comes to these charges, as you mentioned there, we don't know who has been charged or what they've been charged with, i suspect we will find out monday. remember, after the us presidential election, several intelligence agencies concluded that russia tried to meddle in the us election and they were trying to do so on election and they were trying to do so on behalf of the trump campaign. since then there have been several investigations ongoing, including one by the fbi. however, then donald trump fired the director of the fbi, james comey. so there were many, many calls for an independent inquiry. a special counsel has been appointed to look at all this alleged collusion. he has been slowly and methodically working away, looking at information and doing that for several months now. this would be a significant development. these would be the

first charges so we will wait and find out and see exactly what comes from this. has there been any response from the trump administration? well, donald trump tweeted on friday that there had been no collusion between his campaign and russia during the presidential election. also this morning his spokesman has been on fox and friends saying the real focus should be corruption by the clinton administration and not the trump administration. so, when it comes to claim and counterclaim, certainly donald trump's administration is saying this time it should be the democrats and hillary clinton that should be the focus of the investigation and not donald trump. thank you very much. you are watching bbc news. the headlines. catalonia's deposed leader has urged

peaceful opposition to madrid's direct rule. the environment secretary michael opposition to madrid's gove has apologised unreservedly for an on—airjoke about disgraced movie mogul harvey weinstein. it comes on the day that the labour leaderjeremy corbyn will warn that a culture which tolerates the abuse of women is thriving at westminster. in sport, manchester united beat spurs with a late martial strike at old trafford putting united two points behind leaders manchester united city who are 2—1 up against west brom. kenny miller, who was recently dropped, makes his point with two goals in a 3—1 victory over hearts. and caroline wozniacki is through to the final of the wta finals. the win means halep will end as world nonone. “—

means halep will end as world nonone. —— world number one. more on those stories in the next hour. england face spain in the final of the under—17s world cup this afternoon. the side made it to the final after a hat trick from liverpool's rian brewster against brazil earlier in the week. he is on course to become the tournament's top goal scorer. the match is being played in kolkata. not long until kick—off?‘ minutes to go, we are about to have the national anthems. there are more than —— huge support for england because the premier league is so

popular, lots of manchester united and chelsea shirts as people have been walking in. england will start this match very confident. they dismantled brazil 3—1 here on wednesday. the result surprised many people and they've stronger and stronger as the tournament has gone on. remember, spain beat them on penalties in the european championships earlier this year. so anyone incredibly important moment coming upfor anyone incredibly important moment coming up for young guys in the stadium behind me and this is a huge moment for india as well because i think through the course of this tournament they've showed the world this country is notjust about cricket, people here love football as well. i was going to say, as a venue as well. i was going to say, as a venue to stage such a high profile sporting event, kolkata is not one, particularly british viewers, would be used to seeing. that's true. actually this is a part of india that has a strong tradition in football. the local derby here gets more than 100,000, that's more than

you would get in any match back home in the uk. also, you find that fifa have said the level of support for the under—17 world cup is something you wouldn't see in another part of the world. the england players are saying how surprised at the moment they've had, 60,000 for most matches. this is a country of 1. 3 billion. as the fifa president said yesterday, move over cricket, football's time is coming here in india, it's going to be the future sport in this country and more youngsters now play football in india than play cricket. the problem is the indian team is not very good at the moment, if they can get going we are going to see more occasions like this, the ultimate aim is to get a football world cup final at this stadium. indeed, give them time. now, how are spain looking as a team? spain will be very confident. they are one of the better organised teams in this tournament and they'll be remembering that match in may when they scored in injury time against

england to win the european championships on penalties. all independent observers will say that during the course of this world cup england have looked —— looked a class apart. there's been such a debate about the impact of foreign players in the premier league, whether it's stopping english talent coming through. the under—20 team won the world cup, the under—17 in the finals here, the big question is win or lose tonight, will those players get an opportunity in the premier league in the next few yea rs, premier league in the next few years, will we be seeing some of these players in that world cup? that's the question that needs answering. the next couple is hours is all about whether england can win another world cup. how exciting. you do painta another world cup. how exciting. you do paint a picture there, thank you very much. you can watch full coverage of that match on bbc two. it kicks off at 3. 30pm. not long now. moving on. the humanitarian crisis affecting

almost 400,000 people in an eastern suburb of damascus has been described by the united nations as an outrage. the area of eastern ghouta is the last part of the syrian capital under siege by the government. there's been an increase in military attacks and earlier this week unicef said almost 1,200 children were suffering from malnutrition. our middle east correspondent lina sinjab reports from beirut. the main meal of the day. a few spoons of yoghurt and two loaves of bread. feeding a family of seven is a daily struggle. the mother, who is covering herface for safety, says that's all she can afford for the day. "the kids keep saying they're hungry", she says, "my heart is broken. there's nothing i can do." this is seven—year—old mustafa and he is the most in need of food in the family. weighing only ten kilos,

he, like hundreds of children in besieged east ghouta is malnourished. his elder sister can't even go to school. translation: i'm ten years old and i'm in year one. i should be in yearfour. we can't eat or drink and we tell mum day and night that we're hungry. translation: our situation is very bad. my father doesn't have the money. my brother, mustafa, was well and had chubby hands. now, he's very thin. night and day we say we are hungry. my mum says, "god helps us. we don't have the money to bring you food". this is the main reason behind their suffering. the war grinds on.

government warplanes continue to target east ghouta. there are at least 350,000 civilians still trapped there and in need of food. the area has been under siege forfour years. this was the last aid convoy to enter the area last month and it's hard to tell when the next one will come. these children are not in hospital because they are injured, but because they are malnourished. the un says there are over 1,200 children suffering in east ghouta and the numbers are rising. translation: many children are fainting, suffering headaches, blurred vision, depression, all because of a lack of essential food. we can only help so many. we don't have the medicines. mustafa and his siblings are trying

to live a normal life, but with the siege continuing, he is unlikely to recover soon. kurdish officials in northern syria say a 21—year—old man from oxford has been charged with membership of the so—called islamic state group. jack letts — who travelled to syria in 2014 — was captured by the kurdish militia, the ypg. mr letts has previously said he is opposed to is. nine sailors from a nuclear missile submarine have been dismissed from the royal navy after failing drug tests. the ministry of defence confirmed the dismissals from hms vigilant, one of four submarines that carry the trident nuclear deterrent. according to the daily mail, the men are alleged to have taken cocaine. a royal navy spokesperson said it does not tolerate drugs misuse. the winner of the royal institute

of british architects' most prestigious award — the stirling prize — will be announced next tuesday. the nominations to become britain's best new building 2017 include a rejuvenated seaside pier on the south coast of england, a london housing development and an extension to the british museum. today we look at the city of glasgow college by reiach and hall architects and michael laird architects. this is a world—class learning facility and what you see here is actually technical and professional education on an immense scale. the college wanted a building that exuded quality and ambition and

aspiration for their students. we have created a building of scale, of character, of quality. they walk in and they say wow, this is a place i wa nt and they say wow, this is a place i want to be part of. the building is located in a high point in the city and that training is raised to the same level as any institution within the city. the new buildings really have been a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity for the college to transform the way we teach and the way our students learn. we previously operated under of 11 quite dated buildings across the city. these nou campus buildings and this building in particular brought a diverse curriculum and diverse communities into two state of the art nou campus sites. a brilliant transformation for staff and students. you can see all the nominated

buildings on the bbc arts website. you can find out who is the winner live on the bbc news channel next tuesday. zip wiring in a scottish forest and dancing at a glasgow nightclub are not necessarily activities you'd associate with pensioners. but a scheme based in the city is encouraging older people to join in and meet new people. its organiser, who used to work for the nhs as an occupational therapist, says her sessions will help combat loneliness catriona renton has been to find out more. hi! not for the faint—hearted. and this is maybe not what you would expect as a typical but it's all about getting active and experiencing new adventures. it is 70—year—old helen's first time on a zip wire. it was fabulous! i am doing this exciting thing today on this zip wire and i am going to get all the information and experience home and tell my grandkids and i am

going to have a great—grandkid so more to tell them. they'll hardly believe i am doing this. very nervous. but i am willing to give it a go. i want to challenge myself. hold on like that. irene wants to conquer her fears. i have made it! i am glad i did it, though. occupational therapist palmas sallas came up with the idea of what she calls weekday wow factors. there are holistic benefits, to physical health, mental health and social health as well, they're meeting other people and it's feeding everybody‘s souls from the people doing it and for the people watching and it's also reducing ageism in our society. whar are we going to request the dj.

a man, tom jones! if zip wiring is not your thing, then how about this? it's a monday morning and cathy is getting ready to go dancing. cathy has dementia and her family say it can make her feel very lonely. it's a change from the house and the same routine, day in, and day out. you need to get a break. this is a disco with a difference. held during the day in a real nightclub. instead of cocktails, there is tea, sandwiches and great company. do you come here often? yes, i come here to enjoy the fun with the girls. are you enjoying yourself? i always enjoy it. everyone's having fun on the dance floor but there are serious reasons behind these days out and are making a real difference for those involved. let's find out how the weather is